A new version of the Hello Kitty balloon makes its debut Thursday on Central Park West for Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. / Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY

by Staff and wire reports, USA TODAY

by Staff and wire reports, USA TODAY

Thanksgiving Day couldn't have come at a better time for the storm-battered Northeast, where some raced home to be with family, others took in colorful parades and some had quiet dinners with new friends in hotels that were housing evacuees.

Carol Taylor, 56, hasn't been able to return to her apartment in Seaside Heights, N.J., since Superstorm Sandy made her entire neighborhood uninhabitable three weeks ago. So Taylor put together a dinner at her hotel in Harrison, N.Y., for others who were left homeless by the storm and are staying there.

"We have become a family," she said. "We gave each other somebody to cling to when we didn't have anyone else."

President Obama used a portion of his Thanksgiving Day address to thank the countless workers and volunteers who have helped people who lost homes and electricity in New York and New Jersey.

"Here in America, we rise and fall together as one nation and one people," he said. "That's something to be grateful for, today and every day."

After some snarls in Thanksgiving travel early Wednesday, the roads, rails and airlines were running smoothly Thursday.

The weather was warm and sunny across broad swaths of the USA. In Chicago, for example, the high was 65 degrees Thursday before dropping to a forecast high of 35 degrees Friday.

The NFL hosted three games in Dallas, Detroit and New Jersey, and legions of savings-seeking shoppers prepared for Black Friday or headed out Thursday evening as stores opened early for holiday sales.

Thousands turned out for parades in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Detroit.

One question coming into the parades was whether Sesame Street character Elmo would make an appearance after his puppeteer, Kevin Clash, resigned earlier this week. He was accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy in 2003.

But Sesame officials have maintained that Elmo is bigger than one performer. And there was Elmo on Thursday, in the form of a large, inflatable character in Philadelphia and on the Sesame Street float in the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York.

The focus elsewhere was on feeding those less fortunate. In Indianapolis' Westside, volunteers working with the Mozel Sanders Foundation were trying to equal last year's Thanksgiving that served 40,000 dinners and donated 400,000 pounds of food and groceries.

Kent Hiller, of Carmel, Ind., brought his four kids to help set up for the meal. "It helps us teach our kids how to give back," Hiller said. "As parents, it's an opportunity for us to show our kids how blessed we are."

Contributing: Colin Gustafson of The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News; Kristine Guerra of The Indianapolis Star